Anne, Princess Royal

Anne, Princess Royal of the United Kingdom was born at Clarence House on August 15, 1950 at 11:50 am.

Anne is the second child and only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II and Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.

When the Westminster registrar visited Clarence House to complete the birth certificate, he gave Prince Philip his daughter’s identity card, a ration book and bottles of cod liver oil and orange juice.

Anne, Princess Royal  at Chatham House Prize 2015 award ceremony. By Chatham House

Princess Anne had her tonsils and adenoids out at the Hospital for Sick Children, Great Ormond Street on May 4, 1958. The 7-year-old Princess was the first member of the Royal Family to have an operation in a hospital.

She passed her driving test at the first attempt on April 17, 1968 at Isleworth, Middlesex. The 17-year-old Princess Anne drove a red Rover 2000. She began driving at Balmoral, Windsor and Sandringham, and her first instructors were the Queen and Prince Philip.

Princess Anne made her first public speech on May 26, 1969  — and she wrote it herself. The 18-year-old royal talked about her taste in clothes at a lunch to open the Festival of London Stores. She said: "I think I can claim to have supported almost all the stores represented here at some time or other. But I dislike macs so intensely, my Burberry is going to last me a good many years."

An accomplished horsewoman, Princess Anne (b 1950) has ridden in the British Equestrian Team, was European cross-country champion in 1972 and completed in the 1976 Olympics.

Princess Anne married Captain Mark Phillips in front of a global television audience of more than 500 million, at Westminster Abbey, on November 14, 1973. On the same day Royal Mark won the 2.30 Wedding Stakes at Wolverhampton.

It was only the second time in more than 200 years that a British royal had married a commoner. The last commoner to marry into the royal family was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon who married King George VI in 1923.

The couple had two children - Peter, born in 1977 and Zara in 1981.

Peter and Zara carry no Royal Titles. They are still in the Royal line of succession but have no peerage titles because their father was common born and refused a title upon marriage into the Royal Family.

On August 31 1989, Buckingham Palace announced the separation of Princess Anne and Captain Mark Phillips after almost 16 years of marriage.

She won her first race as an amateur flat race jockey on August 5, 1986. Princess Anne rode Gulfland to win Redcar's 3.45 race.

Princess Anne's daughter, Zara Phillips is also a keen equestrian competitor. Together with her horse, Toytown, she won individual and team gold medals at the 2005 European Eventing Championship as well as individual gold and team silver medals at the 2006 FEI World Equestrian Games on Toytown. Zara won the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year award in 2016 — 35 years after the prize was given to her mother.

Princess Anne was prosecuted after one of her dogs attacked a child in Windsor Great Park. She became the first member of the Royal Family to have a criminal record since King Charles I was convicted of treason and beheaded in 1649.

Her son Peter was the first direct descendant of the Queen not to bear a title.

Princess Anne wed for the second time on December 12, 1992, marrying Timothy Laurence at Crathie Church, a church near Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Anne and Laurence had been dating for several years before their engagement was announced in June 1992. Their relationship had been kept relatively private, as Laurence was a serving Royal Navy officer. 

The couple's decision to marry in Scotland was seen as a way to avoid the intense media scrutiny that would have followed a wedding in London. Crathie Church is the Queen's private chapel, and it is located on the grounds of Balmoral Castle, the royal family's Scottish residence. Her 11-year-old daughter Zara was bridesmaid.